AoT: Seeing the Universe in X-Rays (Leiden, in English)

The next Astronomy on Tap Leiden (AoT) will take place on Monday March 30th at the Galerie Café Leidse Lente at 20:00 CEST. Join this AoT to learn about the instruments that astronomers build to see the universe in X-rays. As always, there will be fun games with which you can test your knowledge and try to win cool science prizes!

The speakers

Jelle de Plaa is an X-ray astrophysicist and scientific programmer at SRON in Leiden. His scientific interests include the composition and structure of clusters of galaxies. His talk will focus on what the surroundings of a black hole look like when it is eating. He will discuss how a new Japanese X-ray telescope can observe the unique "barcode" signature of the light, which helps us derive where the hot gas around a black hole is and measure its amazing speeds.

Alex Bayerle is an experimental physicist working on the mirror of the NewAthena X-ray observatory. His talk will focus on the development and manufacturing of this 2.5 meter-diameter mirror, which is comprised of more than hundred thousand small mirror elements. At his company, cosine, his team combines these individual mirrors into modules that then will be integrated into the primary mirror, to obtain a lightweight but high-quality optic.

Logistical information
The AoT starts at 20:00 sharp, so please arrive earlier to enter the café, save a seat, and grab a drink at the bar. The organisation uploads a recording of the talks on their YouTube channel. Galerie Café Leidse Lente is located at Haagweg 4 in Leiden. Payed parking is located at Haagweg 8.